Doctor Who Lost and Found: Two Missing Episodes Recovered!

It is the season of giving and for Doctor Who fans such as ourselves, we have been given a wonderful gift, news of two previously missing episodes which have been recovered! Two classic episodes from the 1960s include one from the William Hartnell era, Episode 3 of Galaxy 4 and from the Patrick Troughton era, Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace were found.

Both were in the collection of one Terry Burnett who had purchased them in the early 1980s and was not aware he had them.

Until now, all four episodes of Galaxy 4 were considered lost. The recovered The Underwater Menace episode originates from Australia's ABC channel which had been censored for broadcast there. The missing bits will be restored to the episode via scans made of them from the National Archives of Australia.

Expect information about a forthcoming DVD release from 2 Entertain sometime in 2012.

There are still missing episodes... Are you a film collector? Please what are you waiting for, check your attic and crawl spaces! What exactly is in that film canister you bought decades ago stored away somewhere? We have to find these lost treasures.

"Two classic episodes of Doctor Who - thought to be missing forever - have been returned to the BBC archive.

Episode 3 of the William Hartnell adventure "Galaxy 4" and Episode 2 of Patrick Troughton's "The Underwater Menace" were purchased by film collector Terry Burnett at a village fete near Southampton in the early 80s. He had been unaware that the canisters contained material missing from the BBC.

Thanks to the kind loan by Mr Burnett, the classic footage has been shown today at the British Film Institute's annual "Missing Believed Wiped" event at the National Film Theatre in London. Host at the event was Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss who said: "Christmas has come early for Doctor Who fans everywhere. It's always wonderful when a missing episode turns up but it's been years since the last one so to have two is just brilliant. Add to that a proper bit of action from the legendary Chumblies (and the horrifying Rills!) plus the utterly mesmeric Patrick Troughton on great form. Well, what more could we all ask for?"

Over 100 episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s still remain missing. The tapes were routinely wiped once the rights to repeat them had expired. It seems unfathomable to us today, but before the advent of DVDs and iPlayer, grainy black and white material was thought to no longer be of interest to the television audience. However, many film prints sold overseas have since been returned. These latest discoveries are the first complete episodes to have been located since 2004."